[News] In Bolivia, the American Empire Stuck Back

[Anti-Imperialist News]

https://ahtribune.com/world/americas/bolivia/3647-american-empire-stuck-back.html?fbclid=IwAR2pkwvmuLSmRmjoc85aSlH5M-nIzDpk02GPeLzkC23JBiXTii1y4AjoBxo 



  In Bolivia, the American Empire Stuck Back

Danny Haiphong - November 11, 2019
------------------------------------------------------------------------

Evo Morales’ fourth term was over before it began. After winning the 
latest presidential election by over 600,000 votes, a flurry of violence 
on the part of the U.S.-backed opposition in Bolivia pressured Evo to 
step down. His home was vandalized and several party members of the 
Movement Toward Socialism (MAS) threatened with violence. The coup in 
Bolivia, which was solidified by recommendation from the military, is 
the latest of dozens of military coups spearheaded by the United States 
<https://www.aa.com.tr/en/americas/america-s-role-in-latin-american-regime-change/1404970> 
over the century and a half. U.S. imperialism has viewed Latin America 
as its backyard since 1823 when it declared the “right to protect” the 
region in Monroe Doctrine. It was at this time that the American Empire 
replaced the Spanish Empire as the foreign power responsible for keeping 
Latin America in a state of oppression, dependency, and poverty.

After over a century of U.S. imperial aggression, Evo Morales arose as 
one of the most revolutionary leaders of the movement for socialism in 
the 21^st century in Latin America—a movement that significant gained 
traction after the election of former Venezuelan president Hugo Chavez 
in 1998. MAS has been in power since 2006. The MAS has acted as a 
vehicle for workers and peasants to assert their dignity and 
self-determination. Trade unions, indigenous, and women’s organizations 
have all played a major role in the implementation of social policy 
<https://polisci.utk.edu/womenpolitics/docs/Buice_GenderConf.pdf> under 
Evo’s leadership. Economic growth in Bolivia 
<https://ahtribune.com/world/americas/621-bolivia-21f.html> has 
increased by an average of five percent per year 
<https://www.theguardian.com/world/2019/mar/07/how-a-populist-president-helped-bolivias-poor-but-built-himself-a-palace>, 
with many of the gains distributed to the indigenous populations 
formally dispossessed by centuries of colonial and neocolonial rule. 
Extreme poverty has been cut in half over the same period.

U.S. imperialism immediately sought to dispose of Evo Morales and his 
indigenous-led movement even before it came to power. A FOIA request 
found that the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) had 
earmarked 97 million dollars 
<https://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=405x15211> 
in “regional autonomy” and oppositional political parties in Bolivia in 
2002. These funds helped develop a U.S.-aligned political infrastructure 
in Bolivia responsible for the coup. The USAID has acted as the 
political arm of the IMF 
<https://ahtribune.com/economy/1803-bolivia-morales-world-bank-imf.html>, 
World Bank, CIA, and the Bolivian elites who do their bidding. One of 
the “protest leaders” of the right-wing opposition, Luis Fernando 
Camacho, is the son of the founder of Sergas, a gas corporation which 
owes over two million USD 
<https://www.telesurenglish.net/opinion/Its-Now-or-Never-Bolivian-Elite-Destroying-the-Country-20191107-0023.html> 
to the Bolivian state for tax evasion and fraud. Under U.S. leadership, 
petty capitalists such as the Camacho family have used NGOs funded by 
USAID 
<https://thegrayzone.com/2019/08/29/western-regime-change-operatives-launch-campaign-to-blame-bolivias-evo-morales-for-the-amazon-fires/> 
to overthrow Evo and his nationalization decree 
<https://www.opendemocracy.net/en/opendemocracyuk/lessons-from-bolivia-renationalising-hydrocarbon-indust/> 
that placed petroleum, electricity, telecommunications, and mining 
sectors under the direction of the state.

The coup being waged by the right-wing opposition has been labeled a 
“protest movement” by the U.S. corporate media. Coup plotters such as 
oligarch and former Bolivian President Carlos Mesa have alleged that 
their protests have come in response to election fraud. According to the 
Center for Economic and Policy Research, 
<http://cepr.net/images/stories/reports/bolivia-elections-2019-11.pdf?v=2> 
no evidence of irregularities or fraudulent activities were found in the 
election results. The baseless claim was used by the imperialist 
corporate media to provide cover for the violent military coup. MAS 
politicians have been forced to flee their homes 
<https://twitter.com/camilateleSUR/status/1193867644149080064>, 
government buildings have been burned, and the Bolivian economy has been 
ground to a halt. The oligarchy in Bolivia is out for blood and it has 
the police and military on its side.

This is not the first time that the American Empire has waged a violent 
coup in Bolivia. The CIA provided military and technical support to 
right-wing military dictator René Barrientos. Barrientos took power by 
way of military coup in 1964 
<https://www.huffpost.com/entry/us-intervention-in-bolivi_b_127528>. His 
brutal suppression of the peasant uprising to his rule led to the 
assassination of Che Guevara. In 1971, the U.S. backed right-wing 
general Hugo Bánzer Suárez with the help of the U.S. Air Force. Hundreds 
of leftists and political activists would be murdered by his regime. 
<https://www.irishtimes.com/news/de-facto-president-cum-dictator-1.1057750>

The coup of Evo Morales comes as the left in Latin America was making a 
resurgence amid countless attempts by the American empire to destroy 
their social democratic project. In late October, Argentina elected 
Alberto Fernandez and Kristina de Kirchner 
<https://www.telesurenglish.net/news/Argentina-President-Elect-Fernandez-Macri-Meet-20191028-0001.html> 
as president and vice president, effectively ending the right-wing and 
neoliberal rule of Mauricio Macri. Tens of thousands took to the streets 
in Ecuador and forced Lenin Moreno to back away from an IMF deal which 
would have imposed harsh austerity measures 
<https://www.pressenza.com/2019/10/ecuador-the-fight-against-moreno-and-the-imf-is-far-from-over/> 
on workers, students, and peasants. Lula De Silva was released from 
prison 
<https://www.theguardian.com/world/2019/nov/09/freed-brazilian-ex-president-lula-speaks-to-jubilant-supporters> 
to begin November. Lula’s freedom represented a concrete victory for a 
Brazilian left currently facing enormous challenges under the rule of 
former officer of the fascist military dictatorship, Jair Bolsonaro.

The American Empire has struck back against the left in Latin America 
with a devastating blow in Bolivia. There are many lessons to learn from 
the U.S.-backed coup. For one, too few in the belly of the U.S. empire 
are prepared to come to the defense of the peoples’ struggle in Latin 
America or anywhere. The corporate media has placed a national blinder 
on the host of coups staged by the American empire in the last ten years 
alone, whether we are talking about the Clinton-Obama coup in Honduras 
in 2009 <https://moderaterebels.com/coup-honduras-migrant-crisis/> or 
the ouster of Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff in 2016. 
<https://www.brasilwire.com/the-2016-coup-opened-the-door-to-disaster/> Awash 
in white supremacist ideology and confined to the most unrestrained form 
of capitalism on the planet, workers and poor people in the U.S. have 
few avenues from which to express concrete solidarity with the Bolivian 
masses.

Another lesson of the U.S.-backed coup in Bolivia is that the so-called 
“end of history” proclaimed by the American empire after the fall of the 
Soviet Union was a complete and utter lie. The American empire is 
“capitalist to the bones” and its rulers believed the world would remain 
under its thumb indefinitely. Evo Morales and the rest of the socialist 
left in Latin America, while unable to completely expropriate the 
property and power of the oligarchs, were able to lead a mass movement 
toward the dignity and self-determination of the oppressed. This path 
required that the seeds of socialism were sewn into the fabric of 
governance throughout the continent. Whether it was called “Chavismo,” 
“21^st century socialism,” or the “pink tide,” the movement has 
empowered workers and peasants to unify across borders to alleviate 
poverty, underdevelopment, and imperial dependency.

Evo Morales was at the forefront of Latin America’s burgeoning 
internationalism. He was a huge supporter of Bolivarian Alliance for the 
Peoples of Our America (ALBA). 
<https://albainfo.org/what-is-the-alba/> Furthermore, Evo challenged the 
American empire on the military front by advocating for the development 
of a continental military 
<https://orinocotribune.com/evo-morales-proposes-an-anti-imperialist-southcom> 
united in defending the sovereignty of Latin America. The so-called “end 
of history” was nothing more than a declaration of victory for the 
American empire that only clouded its true interests abroad. Socialism 
has remained the American empire’s public enemy number one even after 
the end of the so-called Cold War. The American Empire does not respect 
democracy or elections, just the profits of the few. Evo’s Bolivia is 
paying the price for placing the needs of poor Bolivians ahead of the 
riches of the elite.

Perhaps the most important lesson from the coup in Bolivia is that the 
struggle for socialism and self-determination is far from over. The 
oligarchs seeking to wrestle control of Bolivia and the entire continent 
back from the workers and peasants will stop at nothing to lynch Evo 
Morales. A warrant is out for his arrest even though he has committed no 
crime. The oligarchs want to bring the working class back into a state 
of total misery. While the ouster of Evo Morales is indeed a significant 
defeat, the socialist movement in Latin America will no doubt fight 
back. The people of Bolivia will fight back. Cuba, Nicaragua, Venezuela, 
and other allied nations will do everything they can to support the MAS 
through a difficult transition. It is important that the left living in 
the belly of the American empire find a way to do the same.

-- 
Freedom Archives 522 Valencia Street San Francisco, CA 94110 415 
863.9977 https://freedomarchives.org/
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